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WIN A LED Lenser H7 What’s in a name? ONLINE RURAL NEWS // MARCH 20, 2012

OPINION 25

NEWS THAT MAF will change its name at the end of April and be known as the Ministry for Primary Industries reminds me of the talented but weird singer and musician, Prince. Back in 1993, Prince had ‘an artistic difference’ with his record label and got his revenge by changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol. Due to the symbol having no stated pronunciation, he was referred to as “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” Hopefully, the soon to be Ministry for Primary Industries morphs into something more than just a quirky anecdote about the “Ministry formerly known as MAF”. It has to be a ministry that will be of benefit for the whole primary sector and not just a cunning way for the Government to meet its ever-growing target of culling swags of walk sock-wearing public bureaucrats and antagonising shrill officials at the PSA. Mind you, the latter is enough motivation for the Nats to slash the public service to the bone! The new Ministry for Primary Industries is to encompass all Government work in the agricultural, horticultural, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry and food sectors, as well as biosecurity and animal welfare. The new entity will come into effect on 30 April. Former Federated Farmers president Don Nicolson has been a longtime proponent of the move – advocating for the change as far back as 2008. In fact, in his penultimate speech as president in October last year Nicolson said: “The final area is an

impending Ministry that ought to be for Primary Industries… but we stress again the need for the word “for” to be in its title ...” Nicolson has always been adamant that it should be a Ministry ‘for’ rather than ‘of’ Primary Industries. But, isn’t this just semantics? In a word: no. Nicolson’s successor Bruce Wills – who is also happy with the rebrand – says MAF becoming the Ministry for Primary Industries is incredibly positive. “Whether it is aquaculture, dairy, forestry or

ag twits

wine, we have many issues that are common. We can get a lot more synergies from being joined up instead of silos defined by food, agriculture, forestry, horticulture and fisheries. We are all part of one big industry.” Wills is right. New Zealand’s primary industries account for more than 70% of this country’s exports, earn five times the foreign exchange earnings of tourism sector, and employ around 90,000 people. So it makes absolute sense that our economy’s most important sector is joined up and represented by one governmental organisation that is working ‘for’ it. Primary Industries Minister David Carter – the man formerly known as the Minister of Agriculture – says the name change is a logical move. “It recognises the broad role the Minis-

try has of growing and protecting the primary sector, the powerhouse of New Zealand’s economy. Importantly it provides the different parts of the organisation with a single unifying identity to champion the sector.” It is hard to disagree with Carter’s sentiment. But is it not time for the rest of the primary sector get its act together as well? New Zealand’s agribusiness sector is still unable to speak as one, unified voice on industry matters as it is currently served by a wide and diverse group of organisations and lobby groups. Despite the sector’s size, resources and importance to the country’s economic well-being, it is almost impossible for a clear, united and unambiguous agribusiness sector view to be expressed – making it much easier for critics and opponents to pick on different parts of the sector.

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Top Bleats view all dcarterminofprimaryindustries: The imminent arrival of the new Ministry for Primary Industries is thanks to my successful merging of the Ministry of Fisheries, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority and MAF. Now we can cull a whole lot of pen-pushing PSA members! #lessismore wmcneemaf@dcarterminofprimaryindustries: Minister, please do not mention PSA and MAF in the same sentence. We’ve already antagonised kiwifruit growers enough and that kind of talk only riles them. #nottoopopular donnicolsonact: The MAF rebranding was my idea! If only ACT had gained another 100,000 or so votes think of all the other great ideas I could be progressing in the parliament #missedopportunities dshearerlabour: My researchers tell me that large, green spaces in the middle of nowhere are called farms. Labour will now stop all sales of said farms to all foreign people— despite selling 666,000ha of said farmland to said foreign people when in said Government #hypocrisy gcookeunionman: All AFFCO comrades let’s join with our brothers and sisters from the Ports of Auckland and strike ourselves out of all future employment. We may lose our jobs, but we will win the war for unionism! #the1970srevisited rowanoggaffco@geoffcookeunionman: Graham you may have missed it – you were probably on strike – but the 1970s were 40 years ago! Your current industrial action is about as sensible and useful as the music, haircuts and clothing from that decade. #talleyshatecommies barryoneilkvh: Talk about a poacher turned gamekeeper! After getting the arse from the biosecurity service following the Psa infestation I end up nailing a new job combatting Psa. #jobsfortheboys

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